Farmers around the plant in Hirakud had repeatedly complained of heavy crop loss which now has been linked to plant emissions
OSPCB probe team found fugitive release of fluoride from the pots of the Hindalco plant (Photos: Sudeep Kumar Guru)
The report of a team of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board
(OSPCB), which probed complaints of farmers against the smelter plant of
the Hindalco Industries Limited in Hirakud, has indicted the
company
for failing safeguard farms in adjoining villages. Farmers had
complained of heavy crop losses caused by toxic fluoride gas emission
from the plant. The report submitted to the divisional commissioner of
Sambalpur on Monday recommended several measures to the plant managers
to curb harmful emissions.
Farmers surrounding the Hindalco plant had repeatedly complained of
damage to crops because of toxic emissions from the industry. The
farmers of peripheral villages, including Mohammadpur and Nuajamuda, had
recently complained that around 80 hectares (ha) of standing crops were
damaged because of toxic emissions from the industry after Phailin-induced rain on October 12 and 13.
After the complaint of the farmers, the district administration of
Sambalpur had written to the OSPCB for a permanent solution of the
problem. Subsequently, a three member team of OSPCB had visited the
plant and surrounding villages to suggest absolute
remedial measures to stop recurrence of the crop damage.
Remedial measures
In
their most recent complaint, farmers said around 80 hectares (ha) of
standing crops were damaged because of toxic emissions from the industry
after Phailin-induced rains on October 12 and 13
Environmental Engineer of OSPCB, Dilip Das, who led the three-member
team, confirmed that the crop damage was caused by fluoride emission
from the industry. “Fugitive release of fluoride from the pots of the
industry was found during the visit. We have already submitted the
report in this regard. It has been recommended in the report to close
the pot door in time to check crop damage,” he said. Apart from
disciplined operation of the doors of the pots, the team also made
several other recommendations for the industry in its report. It has
recommended ensuring continuous operation of online monitoring system
and data transfer to SPCB server through GPRS. It has also recommended
steps to display the fluoride data electronically near the main gate for
reference of public, explore automation in the pot door closing
mechanism and implement the same in all pots to ensure minimum door
opening and higher hooding efficiency and take steps for plantation
inside the smelter plant.
“Crop damages have occurred mostly during drizzling rain and stormy
weather in past few years. Therefore, the industry should prepare
strategic plans for such conditions and reduce the operational load,
including stoppage of production, if needed, to prevent release of
fluoride in such adverse weather conditions," says the OSPCB report.
Earlier, the team had collected soil samples from the land of famers for
test and attributed the crop loss to high flouride content in the soil.
This was the fifth time that the farmers complained of crop damage
because of toxic emissions from the industry. Prior to this, crop
damage was reported on July 21 last year, September 11 in 2011, in 2003
and 2008.
